Movable barriers, such as upward-acting sectional or single panel garage doors, residential and commercial rollup doors, and slidable and swingable gates, are used to alternatively allow and restrict entry to building structures and property. These barriers are driven between their respective open and closed positions by motors or other motion-imparting mechanisms, which are themselves controlled by barrier moving units, sometimes referred to as “movable barrier operators,” and in the specific case of a door, as “door operators,” and in the even more specific case of a garage door, as “garage door operators.” Garage door operators are effective to cause the DC or AC motor, and accompanying motor drive assembly, to move the associated garage door, typically between its open and closed positions.
Each garage door operator includes a door controller (typically, a microprocessor, microcontroller, or other programmable platform) for processing incoming door commands and generating output control signals to the motor which, in combination with its associated drive assembly, moves the garage door in accordance with the incoming door commands. The incoming door commands, in the past, have been in the form of wired or wireless signals transmitted from interior or exterior wall consoles, or from proximately located hand held or vehicle mounted RF transmitters.
However, with the near ubiquity of the Internet and the proliferation of electronic devices and equipment designed to access the Internet, such as personal computers, cellphones, and Smartphones, systems are currently being designed and implemented in the trade that enable non-proximate, or remote, monitoring and control, via the Internet, of door status. For example, if a homeowner is not in proximity to its residence, and wants to determine whether the garage door the homeowner had intended to close, did in fact close, or whether the garage door it intended to leave open for a workman to enter, had in fact been left open, using one of these systems, the homeowner can, through access to the Internet, remotely monitor the status of the garage door (e.g., whether it is open or closed). Moreover, if the garage door is not in the desired position, these systems are designed to also enable the homeowner to transmit change-of-door status commands over the Internet to move the garage door to the desired position, all without having to be physically proximate the garage to do so.
These aforestated systems typically use means capable of determining the status of the garage door that is then remotely transmitted to the homeowner. For example, some systems use door status monitoring apparatus affixed to, or proximate, the garage door to directly monitor the garage door status. While this approach is generally acceptable for many applications, the requirement to have separate apparatus affixed to, or proximate, the garage door may, for various reasons, not be the most desired approach. Other systems have indirectly determined door status from the door controller of the garage door operator (i.e., from the microprocessor, microcontroller or other programmable platform of the garage door opener). However, these systems have not been entirely acceptable for all conditions of service.
It is therefore among the objectives of the embodiments of the remote door status monitoring and control system and method disclosed herein to present a new and improved version of such system and method that is reliable, takes advantage of Internet signal transmission, and is convenient to install and use.